Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Thanks again. Below, two tiny excerpts, but, first, on organized, corporatized cult-type religions ..


http://www.google.com/search?q=jonestown&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3RNFA_enAU253AU253


Dead followers of Jim Jones
lay before his "throne"
http://www.rickross.com/groups/jonestown.html

And so many more in Iraq .. Rwanda .. et al, today; to the excepts ..

"But Niemoller broke very early with the Nazis. In 1933, he organized the Pastor’s Emergency League to protect Lutheran
pastors from the police. In 1934, he was one of the leading organizers at the Barmen Synod, which produced the theological
basis for the Confessing Church, which despite its persecution became an enduring symbol of German resistance to Hitler.

"The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts,
the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the
forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves;
when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed.Now you live in a system which rules without responsibility even to God." ... "

"From 1933 to 1937, Niemoller consistantly trashed everything the Nazis stood for. At one point he declared
that it was impossible to “point to the German [Luther] without pointing to the Jew [Christ] to which he pointed to.”
[from Charles Colson, Kingdoms in Conflict]

He rejected the Nazi distortion of “Positive Christianity” (postulating the ‘special virtue’ of the German people), as
opposed to “Negative Chistianity” which held that all people regardless of race were guilty of sin and in need of repentance.
An excerpt from a sermon of his printed in TIME Magazine [Feb 21, 1938, pg 25-27]:

“I cannot help saying quite harshly and bluntly that the Jewish people came to grief and disgrace because of its own ‘Positive
Christianity!’ It [the Jewish people] bears a curse throughout the history of the world because it was ready to approve of its
Messiah just as long and as far as it thought it could gain some advantage for its own plans and its own aims for Him, His
words and His deeds. It bears a curse, because it rejected Him and resisted Him to the death when it became clear that
Jesus of Nazareth would not cease calling [the Jews] to repentance and faith, despite their insistence that they were free,
strong and proud men and belonged to a pure-blooded, race-concious nation!

“‘Positive Christianity,’ which the Jewish people wanted, clashed with ‘Negative Christianity’ as jesus himself represented it!
... Friends, can we risk going with our nation without forgiveness of sins, without that so-called ‘Negative Christianity’ which,
when all is said and done, clings in repentence and faith to Jesus as the Savior of sinners? I cannot and you cannot and
our nation cannot! ‘Come let us return to the Lord!’”"

fuagf: On reading the above, while saying, well done Niemoller!, and while applauding his disparaging comments with regards
to 'Positive Christianity', to me, his position of 'Negative Christianity', feels as damaging to the human condition as the other.

I walk under ladders and I step on sidewalk cracks. As a child, in my distaste for the concept of 'original sin' and in my
contrariness to the idea of a singular, human-image, 'God', these statements against what felt superstition were practiced on
purpose. Crankily, I would step on a crack while saying, "stuff superstition". Now I don't notice, it just doesn't matter one
way or another. Who in there right mind would want a dictatorial God, I thought. Now, I feel the whole thing just may represent
an abrogation of human responsibility. God, will take care of it. No sweat, don't worry. We are the chosen people and, in the end,
'God' will look after us. Who, are we? Well, some Jews in their minds; some whites in theirs and some others in their individual ones.
Some individuals who believe it too much end up in hospitals or prisons. Oh!, scientologists are very special, too, aren't they.

I see black cats for just what they are, so they never scare or upset me, more than white one's do; it feels that would be most
unfair, in a sense i guess would be racist. So, that brings me back to the dictatorial God concept, which affords powers independent
of the human mind. Maybe that's what bothers me so much. It feels an abrogation of human responsibility, to fellow human beings.
I don't know; but to those who, say they know the unknowable, I ask why do you feel so content in the believe that a dictator God
will look after you? Why do you believe that your God concept is any more right and real than any others? There is no justification.
It feels, to deny that just may be one of the greatest encompassing and, just perhaps, one of the most damaging denials
of all the denials today.

No, we shouldn't ban the word God, but rethinking can't hurt.

from another ..

Victims of Religion
"This page is dedicated to those well-meaning but ignorant Christians who ask me "Why must you be so negative towards religion?
It's never done anyone any harm!" Sad to say, it has. On top of overt physical harm, religion can also result in wasting one's
life chasing fantasies- and these billions of followers will never get back the time (or effort) they wasted on their religions.
There is also psychological harm inflicted on millions of believers and their families, religion having emotionally crippled
them for life. For any who doubt what I say regarding the psychological harm religion has inflicted on society, they need
only to visit the nearest psych ward to see for themselves that it is over-flowing with religionists, not Atheists. To all
the victims of religion my heart goes out to you, and to you I dedicate this page, in the hopes that you may be SET FREE and
thus spared any future pain."
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://jcnot4me.com/images/Jonestown.gif&imgrefurl=http://jcnot4me.com/items/cults/victims_of_religion.htm&h=148&w=107&sz=517&tbnid=kiHdvzllunkJ:&tbnh=148&tbnw=107&prev=/images%3Fq%3Djonestown&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=1&ct=image&cd=3